Veteran wants to replace 142nd plaque

SPRINGDALE — Army National Guardsmen from Battery B, 1st Battalion of the 142nd Field Artillery unit left Springdale on the day after Thanksgiving in 1990 for duty in Operation Desert Storm.

Thirty years later, Richard Bowman, a veteran of the group, wants to again honor those men.

Bowman spoke before the committees of the City Council on Tuesday about erecting a plaque in a city park. Bowman will work with Chad Wolfe, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, to find a place

in one of Springdale’s parks.

The ladies auxiliary of the unit in 1991 erected the plaque with the names of the 80-plus soldiers in the unit. The plaque was displayed on a rock monument outside of the Springdale National Guard Armory, where the unit was posted.

The Springdale armory was among 200 in the nation closed at the recommendation of the 2005 Base Realignment

and Closure Commission. The armory now houses 100 former inmates in a work release center for the Arkansas Department of Correction.

“I chased it down,” Bowman said of the plaque. “They had to take it down when the state took over the armory. Somebody had stored in a closet.”

The plaque is 36 inches tall and 2½ feet wide, Bowman said.

Bowman at the meeting showed rough sketches displaying the plaque similar to a wayside sign. He said he thinks he can get most material donated.

The unit manned and supported four Howitzer guns.

They came home in May 1991, Bowman said, and several members get together once a month, he said. But about five of the veterans have died in the last few years.

Bowman hopes to get the plaque on display by the fall. He’s involved in planning an event on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to mark the anniversary.